TASAY, Philippines (AP) – As the storm battered his rural home, Reynaldo DeJucos asked his wife and children to stay indoors to protect themselves from lightning strikes, slippery roads and possible fevers.
One thing the 36-year-old didn’t mention was the landslide. In Talisay, a lakeside town in the northeastern Philippines, the 40,000 residents have never experienced it in their lifetime.
But last Thursday, after leaving home to check on his pen at nearby Taal Lake, an avalanche of mud, rocks and fallen trees slid down a steep ridge, destroying about a dozen houses, including his own. The house was full.
Talisay, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Manila, was one of several towns destroyed by Tropical Storm Trami, the deadliest of 11 storms to hit the Philippines this year. The storm left at least 152 people dead or missing before turning across the South China Sea and heading toward Vietnam. More than 5.9 million people were in the storm’s path in the northern and central states.
Reynaldo Dejucos speaks next to a coffin during a wake for a family member lost in a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami at a basketball court in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, on Saturday, October 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
“My wife was breastfeeding our 2-month-old baby,” DeJucos told The Associated Press on Saturday at the city basketball gym. There, five white coffins for all his family members were placed alongside those of more than a dozen other victims. “The children were hugging each other on the bed when we found them.”
“I kept calling my wife and children's names: Where are you? Where are you?”
Disasters and migration to dangerous areas are a dangerous combination
Rescuers use a backhoe to search for bodies under rubble after a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami struck a house and killed several villagers in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. are. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
This is the latest reality check as the Philippines, which has been considered one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, faces an era of extreme climate change.
Situated between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, the Philippine archipelago’s 7,600 islands are subject to approximately 20 typhoons and storms each year, some of them with devastating force. The country of over 110 million people is also located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where many volcanic eruptions and most of the world’s earthquakes occur.
A deadly combination of increasingly destructive weather, blamed on climate change, and economic desperation that has forced people to live and work in hitherto off-limits areas has caused widespread devastation across Southeast Asia. Many communities are now waiting for a disaster to occur. Villages have sprung up on landslide-prone mountainsides, the slopes of active volcanoes, earthquake fault lines, and coastlines often flooded by storm surges.
UN Under-Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, who heads the UN disaster risk reduction agency, said at a recent conference in the Philippines that disasters, including those caused by increasingly severe storms, are threatening more people and governments need to respond. He warned that failure to do so could derail the region’s economic development. We need to invest more in disaster prevention.
Volcanic town bears the brunt of disaster
Villagers look on at rescue efforts after Tropical Storm Trami caused a landslide in Talisay City, Batangas Province, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024, leaving thousands homeless and killing several villagers. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
The picturesque resort town of Talisay is north of Taal, one of the country’s 24 most active volcanoes, located on an island in the middle of a lake. The fertile land is home to thriving fruit and vegetable farms and is also a major tourist destination.
Thousands of poor settlers like Dejuco descended on Talisay over the decades, and the villages were located inland, away from the lake, over a 32-kilometer (20-mile) long area with an average height of 600 meters (2,000 ft). miles) has expanded towards the ridge.
Fernand Cosme, a 59-year-old village councilor, told The Associated Press that the ridge that looms over Talisay’s northern tip has never posed a major danger, at least not in his lifetime. The main concern has always been volcanoes, which have been active intermittently since the 1500s.
“A lot of people are taking risks,” Cosme said of Talisay villagers who have become accustomed to Taal’s fluctuations and have survived in its shadow.
Villagers gather to pay respects to family and friends who died after a landslide triggered by Tropical Storm Trami struck their homes in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) )
Thousands of people were left homeless and several villagers were killed after a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami occurred in Talisay City, Batangas Province, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024, next to their damaged belongings. Residents sitting. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Rescue workers and villagers look on during rescue operations after a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Residents gather what they can from their damaged homes after being hit by a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
In 2020, Taal’s eruption displaced hundreds of thousands of people, sent a cloud of ash all the way to Manila, and closed the main international airport.
Carvin de Torres wanted a safer community for his high school daughter, Kisha, but after separating from his wife, she bought a house near Talisay Ridge where she lives with Kisha. Ta. The daughter was inside the house when the landslide buried her. The mother survived.
Distraught, de Torres showed her daughter’s photo to police officers who searched for the last two missing people on Saturday, Kisha and another family’s baby.
Three hours later, the school uniform hanging from a plastic hanger was dug up in the area where Kisha was believed to have been buried under rubble.
Dozens of police and volunteers dug furiously with shovels until they could see feet in the mud. De Torres wept as the girl’s body was placed in a black body bag. I asked him if that was his daughter and he nodded. Residents expressed their sympathy with tears in their eyes.
Rescuers work at the scene after recent landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Trami hit Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024, leaving thousands homeless and killing several villagers. . (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Rescuers recovered bodies after a landslide caused by Tropical Storm Trami killed thousands of homeless people and several villagers in Talisay, Batangas, Philippines, Saturday, October 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Doris Echin, a 35-year-old mother, said she nearly died when she rushed out of the hut with her two daughters in her arms when the mudslide flooded her waist-deep. She said she prayed hard and managed to trudge through.
As police and emergency workers searched the scene with snipers and sniffer dogs, Echin stood next to the half-buried hut, worrying about the fate of his family.
“If we move, where will we get the money to build a new house?” Which employers will give us jobs? ” she asked. “If we were to rebuild and stay, we would be living between a volcano and a crumbling mountain.”
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Associated Press journalists Aaron Favila and Vicente Gonzalez contributed to this report.
